ALIBI
Today we are going to play "Alibi"!
Warm-up: Test your awareness
Before we start, watch this. It is 60 seconds long. Your job is simple: watch carefully.
đ Whodunnit? – Test Your Awareness (Transport for London)
đš You are all suspects.
Last night, between 19:00 and 21:00, someone broke into this school.
The door to the headteacher's office was forced.
A laptop is missing.
So is the school trip money:
£4,000 in cash.
The police have no leads.
But they know one thing:
Three people worked together.
And everybody in this room is a suspect.
Your job?
Prove that you were somewhere else and that your group is not guilty.
You have fifteen minutes to build an alibi that can survive a police interrogation.
Build your alibi
Get into your group of three. (I choose the groups!)
You were together the whole evening, from 19:00 to 21:00.
You need to agree on one story.
You have 10 minutes.
Decide:
Where were you?
What were you doing?
What did you eat?
What did you drink?
Who paid?
What were you wearing?
What did you talk about?
What was on TV?
Who arrived first?
Who arrived last?
What was the weather like?
What time did you leave?
Agree on every detail.
Then write your alibi down.
All three people must write exactly the same story.
Why?
Because later, the police will separate you.
And then you will have to remember your story without looking at it.
3. Your two papers
Every student has two papers.
THE ALIBI
This is the story your group agreed on.
You need this when you are the suspect.
THE QUESTIONS
These are the eight questions your group will ask.
You need this when you are the police.
Keep both papers safe.
You will use both during the game.
4. Become the police
Now choose eight questions from the list.
Your whole group must choose:
the same eight questions
in the same order
Write them down.
Remember:
Small questions are better than big questions.
Anyone can prepare an answer to:
Where were you?
But it is much harder to prepare an answer to:
Whose phone rang?
5. The questions
Choose eight.
Where exactly were you at 8 o'clock?
What did you eat?
Who paid?
What were you wearing?
What did you talk about?
Who arrived first?
How did you get there?
Whose phone rang?
What was on TV?
What was the weather like?
What time did you leave?
Who left last?
6. Learn your two roles
You will be both a suspect and a police officer.
You will change roles during the game.
đ€ When you are the SUSPECT
When the teacher says:
SEPARATE!
Go to your assigned seat.
Put THE QUESTIONS face down.
You do not need them.
The police will come to you.
Your job:
Answer the eight questions from memory.
You are not allowed to read your alibi.
Do not look at another suspect.
Do not ask your group members for help.
You may say:
"I don't remember."
But only once.
After that, you must answer.
đ”️ When you are the POLICE
Take THE QUESTIONS with you.
Find the suspect you have been assigned to interview.
Ask all eight questions.
Write down the answers.
Listen carefully.
Do not help the suspect.
Do not tell them what another person said.
Do not give them the answer.
You are trying to find contradictions.
You can ask:
"Are you sure about that?"
or:
"That's not what your friend said."
Round 1
The teacher will say:
đŽ SEPARATE!
One person from your group becomes the suspect.
The other two become police officers.
The suspect goes to their assigned seat.
The police officers take their questions and find their suspect.
Police: ask the questions.
Suspect: answer the questions.
Nobody should hear another suspect's answers.
When the teacher says:
đą REGROUP!
Go back to your original group.
Compare the answers.
Look for contradictions.
Round 2
Now change roles.
A different person from your group becomes the suspect.
The other two become police officers.
When the teacher says:
đŽ SEPARATE!
Repeat the interviews.
When the teacher says:
đą REGROUP!
Return to your group.
Compare the answers again.
What counts as a contradiction?
A contradiction happens when the answers to the same question do not match.
Example:
Question: What did you drink?
Rita: Tea.
Dorothy: Tea.
June: Coffee.
❌ CONTRADICTION
That counts as one contradiction.
But different words can mean the same thing.
Example:
Question: Who arrived last?
Rita: June arrived last.
Dorothy: June arrived last.
June: I arrived last.
✅ MATCH
Same meaning. No contradiction.
Remember:
Do not look for identical words. Look for the same meaning.
Who did it?
Now count your contradictions.
0–3 contradictions
Your alibi holds.
đą NOT GUILTY
4 or more contradictions
Your alibi does not hold.
đŽ GUILTY
The group with the most contradictions becomes the final suspect group.
11. Useful English
đ€ If you are the suspect
We were at …
I was watching …
We were just talking.
Sorry, could you say that again?
I don't remember.
Remember:
"I don't remember" only once!
đ”️ If you are the police
Where were you at …?
Who else was there?
What were you doing?
Are you sure about that?
That's not what your friend said.
đš THE BIG CASE
The group with the most contradictions has been caught.
All three of you come to the front of the class.
You are now being questioned by the whole class.
But remember:
You are a team.
You never answer alone.
How it works
Another group asks you one question in English.
For example:
What colour was your friend's jacket?
All three of you:
Write your answer on a piece of paper.
Do it at the same time.
Do not talk.
Do not look at each other's answers.
You have 10 seconds.
Then the teacher says:
đŽ SHOW ME!
Turn your papers around at the same time.
The class decides:
MATCH or CONTRADICTION?
If there is a contradiction...
You have 30 seconds to explain your answer together.
Then the next question.
Finally, the class votes:
GUILTY OR NOT GUILTY?
The final rule
You were together the whole evening.
You must tell the same story.
You must remember the details.
You must speak English.
And you must trust your memory.
Because:
Anyone can prepare the big answers.
The small details reveal the truth.
Good luck, detectives. đ
ALIBI – Teacher's Guide
(This part is just for you and not the students)
Before the lesson
You need
The projected student instructions.
One THE ALIBI paper per student.
One THE QUESTIONS paper per student.
The list of 12 questions.
Optional detective music.
No other preparation is necessary.
The most important logistical point
Suspects must not hear each other's answers.
Spread the suspects around the classroom, into the corridor or into other available spaces.
The police officers move between them.
The background noise is actually useful because it makes it harder for suspects to hear one another.
The two commands
Keep the whole activity running with two commands:
SEPARATE
Students leave their groups and go to their assigned roles.
REGROUP
Students return to their original groups.
Use a loud countdown for the last 3 seconds:
3, 2, 1…
With many simultaneous conversations, this works better than trying to talk over the class.
Group size
The ideal group size is three.
With 26 students:
Six groups of three.
Two groups of four.
For groups of four, pair students so that each suspect has enough police officers to be interviewed separately.
If one student is left over, make them your assistant detective. They can keep time, count down and record the number of contradictions on the board.
What counts as a contradiction?
Count contradictions per question.
If two students say coffee and one says tea, that is one contradiction, not two.
Different wording is fine if the meaning is the same.
For example:
"June arrived last."
and
"I arrived last."
are a match if June is the person speaking.
If students disagree about whether an answer is a contradiction, ask:
Do the answers have the same meaning?
If yes, it is a match.
The Big Case
Do not put an individual student on trial.
The entire group comes forward and answers together.
All three write their answers simultaneously before showing them.
This keeps the focus on memory and language rather than individual performance.
If you have a nervous group, let the suspects remain at their own table and have the other groups come to them one at a time.
Why three suspects?
The story works because the police believe that three people worked together.
Make the crime something that clearly requires several people.
For example:
Ninety dictionaries were stolen from the school. The police believe three people were needed to carry them out.
This makes the logic of the game clear:
The group stands or falls together.
If students question the rules
They may ask:
"Can one person be guilty while the others are just lying to protect them?"
Absolutely.
Turn this into a short speaking activity:
Can you be innocent but still lie to protect a friend?
Give students two minutes to discuss the question in English.
Then bring them back to the game:
That is exactly why the police interview people separately.
Optional music
Play detective music while students create their alibis.
Good options:
Turn the music off immediately when you say:
SEPARATE!
The sudden silence creates a useful transition into the interrogation.
Good Luck!
Sara
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